Realizations
by skeptic skeleton
Summary: "Seeing the son of a sea god beg is surprisingly not the oddest thing to happen that night."/ It's the middle of the night when they walk down the beach and laugh at how idiotic they are, because that's just what they do.


**Hello again :)**

**Since you guys loved my last work with Piper and Percy, your reviews inspired me to write another one.**

**This time it's in first person, told from Piper's point of view.**

**Sorry if the characters seem OOC, I haven't read any of the books except for MOA this year, so I may have forgotten how they tend to act a little.**

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Just because I'm suddenly the "all and powerful head Aphrodite counselor" doesn't mean I'm going to magically change everything about myself. Or anything at all. I sleep in a large T-shirt from the set of one of my dad's movies and a pair of old black boxers. So imagine my surprise when I actually free_ embarrassed_ for wearing this.

I blame Percy Jackson.

He just has to come knocking on my door and demanding he talk with me in the middle of the night, because any other time can just be considered ridiculous. Starts with me having a dream I can't remember and never will when urgent knocking starts at the door. Me being the light sleeper I am is the only hear that hears it.

And he stands there, looking pretty damn well for a guy with major bedhead, a sweaty wife beater, and wrinkled sleep shorts.

"I need to talk to you," he demands, voice low and begging as I sigh and look back to my bed, wishing I could just climb back in it. But of course I don't and follow him outside, because, hey, he's Percy Jackson—your admirable Greek hero—and everyone has a way of doing what he says.

My wrist feels warm as he lightly drags me down to the beach. We use one of the openings by the rocks and I sit down as he starts to pace. Percy has never been known as a worrier. But it comes with always being pointed to as a leader.

"How do you know you're falling out of love with someone?" he asks so suddenly as he turns on his heel, spewing sand behind him. I'm so caught off guard by the question I can hardly come up with a decent response.

"Come again?"

Percy sighs, messing up his hair even more as he kicks at the white sand. The grains fly up a little from his movements, shifting their existence to show a dent.

"Like." He struggles to find the words; his fists grasp at air due to his frustration. "Say you're part of a Star Couple that everyone wants to be together but suddenly you don't feel the flame anymore, you know? Like your relationship lost its starting spark?"

I awkwardly wedge my bottom lip between my teeth. "Aphrodite kids are only certified with making love _happen_—not ending it."

Percy groans. His hand rubs his face, his eyes looking at me tiredly as he sat down next to me. I stare down at my hands. I think I know where this is going. He and Annabeth haven't been the same. No one knows why, but everyone has noticed it, especially the Aphrodite kids. At first I felt kind of bad, knowing a sad relationship when I see one because of mine with Jason not too long ago. But being together because of some stupid reputation? That's must've of been way more stressful than I can imagine.

"If you both know you're going nowhere, why continue with the trip?" I say softly, remembering a piece of my father's advice.

Percy blinks owlishly at me in the beach moonlight, waiting for me to continue.

"Stay with me here." Our knees bump together. "You both feel it, don't you? That spark leaving? That's like two people in the same car both knowing they're going to wrong way but still going down the road anyway."

"Good point," he admits.

"So, why?"

"Why what?" His eyes meet mine.

"Why stay together for just some stupid reputation?" I ask sincerely.

Percy sighs, leaning back until he's lying on the rock. After brief hesitation, I follow the suit. Maybe it's because I'm always dragged into something before I can notice, but this is first time really noticing how pretty the stars are.

"I just wish there was a handbook on this kind of things," he mutters to the sky.

I turn my head to look at him. "You have me—admittedly, that's not a lot, but it's better than going into a battle defenseless isn't it?"

He laughs, but there is only slight humor in it. "Funny, but I see your point."

We lay in silence for a minute, looking up into the sky. The quiet nature is nice and calming, the waves ceasing in their loud lapping to settle into soft washing against the beach's surface.

"You know, I used to have a friend that told me the stars held your fate."

"Oh really?" Percy looks to me, amused it seems. "What friend was this?"

I shrug as best as I could in my position. "Well, I can't really call her a friend, I guess," I say sheepishly. "But her mom worked with my dad for a couple movies. We hung out a lot. She was a bit of a hippie and believed everything in life could be told through the Earth or the stars."

"Really?"

"Yeah."

Our heads are so close he was practically breathing on my lips. Our arms press together like our legs. An embarrassing heat crawls up from my chest through my neck and settles on my cheeks. I pray he can't see my face.

"And what are the stars supposed to say?" His voice is slight as he glances to the sky again. Yellow light freckles its surface.

"Depends on what you see—what kind of person you are."

I turn to the stars myself. The day that girl told me her opinion on the stars, I didn't think twice before thinking it complete bull. But now, lying side by side with a boy who is as lost and loveless and in like with someone he shouldn't be as me, I find that maybe her accusation isn't that far off.

I begin to look at the stars—to really read into them. How can something so small and distant be the thing to hold the key to your fate? And how is it I've faced monsters and gods and deaths and yet stars are the things to throw me off guard the most?

Some questions never have answers.

Sadly, those questions are mine.

"What do they say to you?" I ask him, mainly because I'm hoping for some ideas.

Percy still looks to the sky as he responds. "That I'm such a hot mess."

I laugh. "That's debatable—the hot part anyway." I'm totally kidding, but Hades would get me before I admit that to him.

"What do they say to _you_, Miss Piper McLean?" he teases in a question. I expect this, but am still unprepared.

But surprisingly, an answer (a good one, at that) flows from my lips. "That falling out of love and falling in like are close to the same thing."

I look to Percy at the end of my sentence. To my shock, he's smiling. "How close."

Now his breath is really puffing to a landing on my lips, fanning my face.

"Like, close enough the same line—nearly."

"Nearly" can barely escape from my throat before his lips are against mine. We're tired and emotional and star struck and still are by the time we pull away.

Thirty seconds; yeah, I'm that type of girl.

This is the night. The night I, the girl in the sleeping boxers and old shirts and the one with charm speak, help a guy, Percy, fall out of love with his something-like-a-friend and see that both of us our falling in like with someone. Even though it's highly unlikely it seemed to the other.

But it hadn't been up to us. It's always up to the stars.

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**Oh my gods, that was such a crappy ending I can't even describe it. But, you know, this had been a working project since December and I really wanted to get it done before 2013 ended.**

**I hope you like it. And if it seems a little scattered because of me constantly dropping it and picking it up only to drop it again…oops. That's all I can say...whoopsies on my part I guess.**

**Review and tell me what you think. Later, guys :D**


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